


Little Leaf Monsters

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Autumn, Changing Leaves, Fluff, M/M, fall - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 23:11:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14199699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	Little Leaf Monsters

There were two things Spencer Reid was meant to do in life - work for the BAU and become a father.

Now both dreams had been realized.

He stood outside, the cool breeze seeping deliciously into his skin through his purple and black flannel shirt, glancing toward his five-year-old twins - Jennifer Diana, or JD, and Stephen Walter - with his husband, Luke. That was something else he never thought he’d have. Someone to come home to. Someone that understood everything about him. His family was his everything.

“What do we know about trees?” Luke asked JD and Stephen as they sat in a pile of leaves. As smart as they were, no one - not even a genius - could pass up the pure joy of lifting up a handful leaves and making it rain. 

Though the children were biologically Luke’s, and looked a lot like him, they took after Spencer in almost every other way. His thirst for knowledge being one. 

“Trees drink 2,000 liters of water every year!” Stephen said proudly. “That’s a lot of water.”

Luke bent down and kissed his head. “Yes, it is. What about you, Miss JD?”

“There are two major types of trees: deciduous,” she said, her mouth still unable to fully form the word without trouble, “And coniferous.”

“What’s the difference?” Spencer asked proudly. Whether his kids ended up smart like him or not, he didn’t care - they were his babies - but he couldn’t deny how proud he was of his little ones right now.

JD pointed up at the tree they were sitting under. “This is a decid-deciduous tree because it loses its leaves. Coniferous ones don’t.”

“And deciduous trees have different shaped leaves while coniferous ones have needles, most of the time at least,” Stephen added. “Daddy?”

“Yea, Stephen?” Spencer asked. The little boy had that tone in his voice that Spencer and Luke loved. He was about to ask a question about something he didn’t know. 

Luke sat down next to the pile of leaves, laughing as JD and Stephen piled leaves on top of his head and onto his red and black shirt. The flannel material was catching the leaves; it was like he was decorated like a Christmas tree - a messy, autumn Christmas tree. 

“Why do leaves change their colors?” Stephen asked.

JD’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yea why Daddy?”

Luke gathered both children in his lap and sat as a waiting audience before Spencer who was excitedly getting ready to explain the wonder of autumn trees. 

“Well, during the spring and summer the leaves make the food necessary for a tree’s growth. It takes place in cells in the leaf that contain chlorophyll,” he started. When he was a kid, he tried telling his classmates things like this, watching as their eyes glazed over with boredom, but his babies and his husband were sitting across from him with rapt attention. “The chlorophyll gives the leaves their green color.”

“So what happens when they turn colors? Do the different colors depend on things like light?” JD asked.

Spencer nodded proudly. “Yes, that’s one of the things that makes a difference in their colors. At this time of year, there are changes in the length of daylight and in the temperature, which makes the leaves stop their food-making processes.”

“How do you know all these random things?” Luke asked astounded. 

“After all these years, my random knowledge still surprises you?”

“You shouldn’t be surprised anymore, Dad,” Stephen laughed. “Daddy knows a lot of stuff.” 

“That he does.” He gave Spencer a look that told him to keep going. 

Spencer picked up a couple of the leaves, one yellow, one orange and one red, pointing to each as he spoke. “The chlorophyll is what makes the leaves green and it overpowers the pigments that make leaves different colors, but when the temperature falls and there’s less daylight, the chlorophyll isn’t as powerful anymore and other pigments come out.”

“Are there different pigments for each color?” Stephen asked.

JD held up two bright red leaves. “Which pigments make red!? I have to know!”

Spencer beamed as he spoke. Luke fell more and more in love every time his husband spoke. “There are different pigments for different colors, Stephen. One is called carotenoids that are yellow and orange in color.”

“Do ca-ro-ten-oids make carrots orange?” JD asked.

Luke marveled at his kids, so amazingly smart and perceptive and loving. 

“Yes!” Spencer exclaimed. “And leaves change to red because of molecules called anthocyanins. They actually protect the leaf from damage from too much sunlight.”

“So it’s like leaf-y sunscreen?” JD wondered, proud of her comparison.

“Exactly!” Spencer replied. “Like sunscreen for leaves. They also turn red when the weather is colder.”

JD got up from Luke’s lap and ran around gathering red leaves. “They match your shirt, Dad! I like the red ones more than the yellow and orange. I don’t really know why.”

“Red might be one of your favorite colors,” Spencer replied.

JD continued grabbing her red leaves while Stephen gathered up the yellows and oranges. “Lie down in the grass, Daddy! You too Dad.”

“Why?” Luke laughed.

“You’ll see.”

They did as the kids asked and laid in the pile of leaves as JD and Stephen laid the ones they’d gathered on top of them. “Goodbye, world,” Luke said as the last leaf covered his eyes.

Spencer laughed and blew one of the leaves away from his mouth, which only resulted in the kids piling more and more onto them. It seemed like ages that they’d been lying there in the leaves. “Should we pop out and scare them?” 

“I think so. Count of three.”

“One, two,” Luke whispered. “Three.”

“Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!” JD and Stephen ran screaming, picking up leaves and throwing them in the path of their dads. “Scary leaf monsters!”

Halloween was Spencer’s favorite, and he and Luke did make great leaf monsters. “No you are!” Luke cried.


End file.
